You’re looking at a UX disaster, the result of eliminating what is probably the simplest, most intuitive form of navigation ever implemented in consumer electronics: the iPhone’s home button. The iPhone X replaces it with the mess above. This is bad news, because this interaction is a fundamental part of the user experience.
Category: Status
Episode 128: “I have no idea what you believe.”
Sam is joined by The Rev. Merianna Neely Harrelson to discuss beards, doubt, faith, securing your spot in The Good Place or The Bad Place, ethics and eschatology, rededicating your life, and salvation bracelets.
Special Guest: Merianna Neely Harrelson.
Links:
Episode 127: Under the Screen
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the iPhone X, Airpods and Mods, prepping for the coming apocalypses, Heaven's Gate, and the theologies of nativism.
Links:
Episode 126: The Problems with The Dark Age
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss anniversaries and birthdays in the Facebook age, whether the Vikings referenced Allah in their gear, and why "The Dark Ages" is such a troublesome concept (and why we're currently in the midst of The Digital Dark Age).
Links:
- Sam Harrelson on Instagram: “It’s here (no, I’m not going to do a dorky unboxing video…maybe)!” • Instagram
- Debunking Viral Story, Art Historian Says ‘Allah’ Does Not Appear on Ancient Viking Garment | artnet News
- Dark Ages (historiography) – Wikipedia
- 6 Reasons the Dark Ages Weren’t So Dark – History Lists
Episode 125: Conceptions of Hell
Love of books, Kindle vs hardbacks, home ownership, hell, sex, generational divides, and epistemology
Links:
Episode 124: Mark is the Best Book in the Bible
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson talk about phone problems and promises, growing up, and the finale of the First Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge Extravaganza.
Podium Winners:
Gold: Mark
Silver: Matthew
Bronze: 1 Samuel
Sponsored By:
- Sam Harrelson Consulting: Get a free estimate for your church or nonprofit’s website redesign or social media campaign from the experts at Sam Harrelson Consulting this summer. Promo Code: Hermeneutics
Links:
- Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge – Challonge
- Google is tryharding at phones right now, and I love it – The Verge
- How to Get Into and Out of iPhone Recovery Mode
- The Talk Show ✪: Ep. 201, With Special Guest Matthew Panzarino
- Apple’s iPhone X notch is an odd design choice – The Verge
- Donald Trump–Russia dossier – Wikipedia
- Gospel of Mark
Episode 123: Testing the Limits
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson are joined again by David Ray Allen Jr. to cover the Final Four of the Bible Bracket Challenge. It gets bloody this week.
Special Guest: David Ray Allen Jr..
Sponsored By:
- Sam Harrelson Consulting: Get a free estimate for your church or nonprofit’s website redesign or social media campaign from the experts at Sam Harrelson Consulting this summer. Promo Code: Hermeneutics
Links:
- Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge – Challonge
- Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive in major milestone for country
- Twitter on Twitter: “Can’t fit your Tweet into 140 characters? 🤔 We’re trying something new with a small group, and increasing the character limit to 280! Excit… https://t.co/y1rJlHsVB5”
- MRBlog | The Price of Patriotism – The Marginalia Review of Books
- The Brick Testament
- Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels, New Revised Standard Version: Jr. Burton H. Throckmorton: 9780840774842: Amazon.com: Books
- ANTICHRIST NUMEROLOGY IN GANGNAM STYLE – YouTube
Episode 122: Last Night on Earth
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson compare their phones' home screens, discuss the relevance of Facebook to political campaigns, and continue the very contentious Bible Bracket Challenge Elite 8 Round to decide the Final Four. It's on.
Links:
- Thinking Religion is creating Podcasts | Patreon
- Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge – Challonge
- Facebook agrees to release Russian-purchased ads, pledges deeper look at 2016 election – POLITICO
- Arcade Fire singer on ‘fake news’ prank: I understand why Trump won now | TheHill
- Arcade Fire’s Win Butler on ‘Everything Now’ Album Rollout — The media is built for clicks now, and we were trying to see firsthand how it all works. I feel like I now understand on a much deeper level why Trump got elected. Negativity is what travels. So we learned more about how the internet functions, and how it’s an insane feedback loop. It’s like, we just played a show in London that was one of the best shows we’ve ever played there. It was honestly so fucking exciting. And at the show we sold a T-shirt where we put an ironic Everything Now logo on top of Kylie Jenner’s face. It was visually punk as hell. We knew doing that would get a lot of press pickup but every single news outlet in the world covered it. Somehow there’s a story in that, but there’s not really a story in Band Is Really Amazing at Music and Plays a Live Show and People Cry Because It’s So Beautiful. So it was really interesting to us to see what got picked up about Arcade Fire. That idea plays into what we were doing as well: We were providing the ammunition for people who wanted to write negative things about the band: Here you go! Here’s something to be outraged about!
- The Super-Aggregators and the Russians – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
- Google Play Music
- Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse: Adela Yarbro Collins: 9780664245214: Amazon.com: Books
- Should A Christian Get a Tattoo? Is It Wrong To Put Ink On My Body?
- September 23, 2017: You Need To See This (Date Setting A Sign, NOT The Rapture) – YouTube
Episode 121: That’s What Mordecai Said
Dr. Thomas Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss new iPhones, playing the expectations game, and how mobile devices have transformed learning and worshipping. Then, they launch into the "Sweet 16" of the Bible Brackets Challenge. Sorry, Esther.
Links:
- Thinking Religion is creating Podcasts | Patreon
- Thinking Religion Bible Bracket Challenge – Challonge
- iPhone X vs. iPhone 8: how to pick between them – The Verge
- 5 Tips for Donating After Disasters — ProPublica
- Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund
- Houston Humane Society | Pet Rescue, Animal Shelter & Pet Adoption in Houston, TX | Giving
- Animal Rescue | Animal Shelter Support | SPCA International
- Lego Eddie Izzard – Ten Commandments – YouTube
Episode 120: Stink Bug Theology
The Rev. Lauren Larkin joins Dr. Thomas Whitley and The Rev. Sam Harrelson in a discussion of how hermeneutics and worldviews affect our theologies and what sort of spaces we try to build.
Special Guest: Lauren R.E. Larkin.
Links: